This past weekend saw a lot of boats on the water with several tournaments going on at one time. Practically everyone was""sight fishing"" for spawning fish on their beds. This coming weekend will see another round of tournaments going on and once again we will have a very busy lake. The bed fish are getting ""pounded"", I encourage everyone to handle your fish with care and for all you tournament fisherman who may be reading this, I ask that you ""Do Not"" use any type of a tournament buoy that put's a hole in the lower jaw area of the fish. Please use either a clip on type, or a rope type that goes through the mouth, or a bag system that is available to put your fish in by size. I see thousands of fish per year come to the boat and many of these have been badly damaged by being put on the buoys to be culled, and or weighed in at a tournament. These holes result in the fish thrashing around when being taken out of the live well and a big gash ends up in the jaw section of the fish. This gash does not heal up and also get's infected. The overall bite this past week improved with many of the post spawn fish now wanting to feed up from the rigors of the spawn. My best trip this week resulted in three fisherman catching 28 fish up to six pounds for their six hour trip. They caught all of these fish throwing a wacky style senko up into the spawning areas and working it out from three feet to eight feet. We worked them around docks and out through the submerged weed beds. The key is to work the senko as slow as possible, letting it set for a period of time and then just slowly dragging and stopping it through the weeds. I have them rigged on 10 lb fluorocarbon line with a number two size Glok hook. Best colors are green pumpkin and watermelon with black flake. The topwater action with frogs, zara spooks, and poppers such as the Rico has been minimal but will get better and better as we go further into the spawn and the weeds start to top out. Of the 28 fish my customers caught on Tuesday this week, the vast majority had already spawned but many are still spawning and will continue to spawn into June. Tournaments starting today and going through the weekend are: Police and Fireman's tourney, (Thur, Fri) the PG&E employees tournament will be Sat & Sun, and then there are four out of the area Club Tournaments on Sat & Sun. Combine all of this with the ""annual"" Catfish Derby that will be going on Fri, Sat, & Sunday with over 450 entries into that one and you will find a VERY busy lake. Other baits that are working are your drop shot worms in 4 & 6 inch, in your darker colors such as Robo's Folkstead special, or MMIII's, Marten's madness, red craw, are all working. Buzz baits and chatterbaits have also been catching fish. Water still under the surface. That's it for now, ""Good Luck"" and handle your fish with care. Thanks' and God Bless, Bob conditions currently are very good with clear water and no severe algae blooms. Weeds are growing fast but for the most part are

The month of April was a busy month for the lake with all the tournaments and the good weather we had brought a lot of people out. The FLW Stren series that was here resulted in some really nice bags of fish being weighed in. The winner had a total of 74 lbs for his 15 bass weighed in over a three day period. Fish were caught on a whole variety of baits, senko's, drop shot worms 4inch and 6inch in the MMIII colors, swimbaits, chatterbaits, were all reported by the tournament people. By far the overall technique used by most of the pro's was ""Sight Fishing"" for bedding spawning bass. Senko's in green pumpkin, watermelon with gold flake, and watermelon with black flake were all mentioned. I personally like the 912 which is combo color of watermelon with black flake and green pumpkin. We are also getting reports of good fish being caught on topwater frogs and wakebaits. Currently we have a cold front going through with some light showers but then we have a warming trend predicted through all of next week. This will move another wave of fish up to spawn and the current bite which is pretty slow now should improve big time this next week. The live bait bite is still working with the jumbo minnows but I am starting to move away from that and back to senko's rigged wacky style, drop shot worms and for those who can work them, throwing topwater frogs and wakebaits. Our lake level reached it's high point this past week of 5.92 feet and will start to drop through out the summer now as the water is used for irrigation. Currently the clarity is good to very clear in some areas. The algae bloom has not kicked in as of yet so conditions are rated as very good. The spawn here at clear lake will continue through June, any warming trends combined with a full moon period will bring more fish to the shallows. Remember to release the fish so they can spawn, also remember if you are bringing a boat to Clear lake to get your inspection sticker on it before launching. Our big fish this past week was a solid pre spawn 7 1/2 lber. She is shown on the photo section. Remember when viewing the photo section, that all pictures are in "date order" and if you click on any photo, the info about the trip, catch, and size will show. That's it for now, God Bless, Bob